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Jim Wells: I've been let down so badly by the DUP

Jim Wells has said he will refuse to accept the DUP whip even if it is restored to him. Picture by Niall Carson/PA Wire
Jim Wells has said he will refuse to accept the DUP whip even if it is restored to him. Picture by Niall Carson/PA Wire Jim Wells has said he will refuse to accept the DUP whip even if it is restored to him. Picture by Niall Carson/PA Wire

DUP MLA Jim Wells has said he will sit as an independent member if the Stormont assembly is revived.

Mr Wells, who represents South Down, had the party whip withdrawn earlier this year after he criticised the DUP leadership.

He resigned as health minister in 2015 following controversy over comments relating to same-sex couples at a public meeting in Downpatrick.

He claimed that former party leader Peter Robinson had given assurances that he could return to his ministerial role, which the former first minister denied.

However, Mr Wells has now said that, while he intends to remain a a DUP member, he intends not to accept the DUP whip even if it is restored to him.

"After 43 years as a member, 17 years as a councillor and 24 years as an MLA I have been let down so badly by the party leadership. Should the Assembly meet again I would sit as an independent unionist member," he told Sunday Life.

The South Down MLA also claimed for the first time that the party failed to publicly back him after a woman was convicted of fabricating claims about his remarks at the 2015 hustings event in Downpatrick.

He said that he requested that a press release be issued by the DUP welcoming the verdict of the court case against Dorothy Gardner, but that this did not happen.

"I was extremely disappointed about this lack of support but what I found particularly disappointing was that several party officers who I had been friendly with for over 30 years stopped having any communication with me.

"I came to the conclusion that I was seen by the party officers as an embarrassment and the false allegations wich had been made against me and my subsequent departure from the Executive were a convenient opportunity to get rid of me," he claimed.

Mr Wells also claimed that the current leadership intended to replace him as the South Down candidate.

The DUP did not comment.